The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

I Am Not "Nice"

Simply because I am not especially blunt and don't swear much, do not assume I am "nice" or that I will sit through damfoolery on your part with a smile, give you a pat on the head, a plate of cookies and a glass of milk when you are done and take your half-baked, half-witted notions seriously.

If you are horrified by the notion of private individuals owning, carrying and/or shooting guns, don't bother commenting here. If you think a repressive, one-party government with full control of the media is every bit as free and open as one with Constitutional limits to government protecting freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and the right to keep and bear arms (among others), I am not interested in your opinions -- they are wrong, not just ill-informed, and you're a child at best, an idiot or an agent of totalitarianism at worst.

The Federal government of these here overly-United States has many faults and flaws; I'm not real happy with some of the things it has done in the past and I'm not pleased about where it appears to be headed. Bad as it is, it is still better than any other, in part because of the limitations upon it and because it includes mechanisms for peaceful change -- even when the change is as drastic as the recent Presidential election.

If you think Americans are scary, violent people, if our abrupt manners and exuberance offends you, avoid us. Don't come whining to me about it, because I am one of 'em.

Don't hector me about the horrawfulness of me carryin' a gun. I am armed. I will be armed. I will ignore your whining about it. While encountering people who are in the act of attempting to harm me is a low-probability event, it has happened to me twice in the past when I wasn't armed and it was bad. If there's ever a third time, I will have an option other than fleet feet and a bag of groceries to throw. (How long did it take the cops to arrive after shots were fired at me in the parking lot of a fully-occupied apartment building? Twenty minutes. That's a lot of bleeding -- I'm sure glad the criminal was a lousy shot).

It's a free country -- and you can get a free blog of your very own to express your hoplophobia, sing the praises of single-party systems, whinge about those with more than yourself or write of your deep and abiding lust for the capybara at blogger.com, among others. This is my blog and if you come here with that stuff, I'll argue with you, make fun of your ignorant prejudices, and if you persist, I'll tell you to leave. I may even ban you. (I've even banned people with whom I am largely in agreement 'cos they wanted to have big fights in my comments sections instead of on their own blogs -- this is my flower bed and I'll weed it as I see fit).

"I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."